Symbolism in the Rotunda

Ch 10-Symbolism in the Rotunda--Constantino Brumidi Artist of the Capitolscape panoramas.2 Brumidi
dition that went back to
Raphael’s walls in the Vatican
and relied heavily on allegory
and elaborate architectural em-
bellishment. His corridor de-
of ancient Roman frescoes.
chapter 7). But the classically in-
spired architecture of the newly
expanded Capitol was similarly
painting was more than suitable to its antique splendor.
The secret of Brumidi’s genius, however, is not to be
found so much in the style to which he was born and
which he imposed at the Capitol as in his capacity to see
the whole from its parts and to find an elegant overall so-
lution to any pictorial or symbolic problem with which he
was faced, as he did in the Agriculture Committee room
(see chapter 5). It is plain that none of the highly skilled
artists working with him at the Capitol, such as Em-
merich Carstens or James Leslie, or those who came after
him, such as Filippo Costaggini or Allyn Cox, could
match him in this totality of skill and vision.3 Thus an
artist of Brumidi’s temperament could well appreciate the
aesthetic dimension inherent in the political ideal of unity
that impelled his patrons and in the symbolism of raising
up the dome of the Capitol to proclaim the republic’s in-
tegrity in the midst of a savage and draining civil war.
he only inscription in the
Rotunda of the United
the many, one), painted in the
dome by Constantino Brumidi
10–1). Indeed, the dome of the
Capitol was erected and deco-
rated as a symbol of the stead-
fastness and confidence of the
Union during the height of
that great insurrection
his design and began negotiat-
ing his commission for the
dome painting during the au-
tumn of 1862, while the Capitol was being used as a hos-
pital for wounded soldiers. He worked on his cartoons
while battles raged, from early 1863, when his commis-
sion was approved, to the end of the year. When finally, in
late 1864, the canopy was installed and Brumidi was able
to start painting, the war had still not ended.
Brumidi was the first accomplished American muralist
in fresco. Before him, murals had been painted in oils or
tempera on wood or plaster, mostly in domestic interiors,
and took the form of wall panels, overmantels depicting
141
T
Fig. 10–2. The Capitol after completion of the
dome, 1866. Brumidi could not begin painting the canopy until the dome was constructed.
Fig. 10–1. Detail of inscription “E Pluribus Unum.” Maid- ens representing the original states hold a banner in The Apothe-
osis of Washington. Rotunda.
The Evolution of The Apotheosis
It is almost possible to see Brumidi’s conception of a uni-
fied symbolic program for the central space of the Capitol
develop in the succession of studies he made for The Apoth- eosis of Washington in the vast canopy of the Rotunda’s
dome. The first study, in oil on canvas (fig.10–3), depicted
Washington, his head at dead center, standing with a group
of the Founding Fathers and flanked by deities and allegor-
ical figures. Above Washington’s head is an eagle holding a
flag, while at the bottom can be seen the Earth, with the
North American continent clearly visible.
Brumidi soon realized that this first conception, with
its axial symmetry establishing a clear top and bottom,
would be seen as upside down or sideways from three of
the four entrances to the Rotunda. His second sketch
(fig. 10–4) attempted to achieve a greater centricity, plac-
ing an oval portrait supported by putti and flanked by al-
legories in the middle of the composition supported by
the arc of a rainbow. Below this central group, the eagle
brandishing arrows harries the forces of discord and strife,
while to the right Mercury holds aloft the caduceus and,
opposite, putti offer the land’s abundance. The arc of the
thirteen colonies, with their scroll, appears above; and
above them is a firmament containing thirty-three stars.
This detail plausibly dates the sketch to 1859, when the
thirty-third state, Oregon, was admitted to the Union.
While this was certainly a great improvement over the
142
Fig. 10–3. First sketch
for The Apotheosis of Wash- ington, c. 1859. The allegories of the thirteen colonies holding a scroll encircling Washington was an idea re- tained in the final design. Athenaeum of
Philadelphia.
viewer would look up into the space of the apotheosis. At
dead center was no longer the head of the protagonist,
but a brilliant, golden sky. Washington is enthroned be-
neath the sky, flanked by just two allegories, at the west
facing east. Above him, but reversed, is the arc of the
thirteen colonies, creating a second “eye” to the dome,
toward whose blinding glory all heads point, yet turn
away. But even more important, he has reorganized the
various historical and allegorical figures in the earlier
studies into six groupings around the edge of the design
in such a way that one or more would appear upright no
matter from what angle the whole was viewed.
While redesigning the dome in 1859, architect Thomas
U. Walter incorporated Brumidi’s design into his plans
first design, it did not solve the problem of a design that
would be visually coherent from all sides.4
While the history of Brumidi’s thinking about the
Apotheosis between 1859 and 1862, when he was com-
missioned to paint it, cannot be documented precisely, it
can, nevertheless, be deduced with some plausibility. The
third and last study for the dome design (fig. 10–5) re-
veals a complete spatial reconceptualization.5 In this final
study Brumidi made the crucial conceptual transition
from easel painting to monumental mural, from the sim-
ple frontality and directional orientation of a conven-
tional wall or ceiling painting to an environmental sense
of the soaring space of the enlarged Rotunda. He com-
pletely reversed the field of his composition so that the
143
Fig. 10–4. Second sketch
for The Apotheosis of Wash- ington, c. 1859. Brumidi’s sec- ond design retained the thirteen maidens but represented Washington with a painted portrait. Private Collection.
144
Fig. 10–5. Final sketch for The Apotheosis of Washington, c.
1859–1862. The large oil sketch, three feet in diameter, of the final composition, now in a private collection, is shown in the photograph copyrighted by Brumidi in 1866. Photo: Gardner.
central, enthroned allegorical figure. It is, however, painted
over in watercolor with a depiction of Freedom and other
figures identical to those Brumidi ultimately executed.6
Brumidi began in the spring of 1863 to work up his
full-scale cartoons for the dome and to perfect his design.
He spent the following year painting the nearly 5,000-
square-foot concave surface. The canopy fresco was un-
veiled in January 1866 (see frontispiece).
(fig. 10–6). His rendering of a cross section of the Ro-
tunda with the redesigned dome clearly shows the canopy
and the frieze—the latter represented by a row of figures
that echo the Parthenon frieze—in relation to the eight
earlier historical paintings installed in the Rotunda walls. In
the drawing, two designs for the canopy mural are visible.
The first is a vague generalization—a line drawing of a
landscape with groups of figures and horses surrounding a
145
SYMBOLISM IN THE ROTUNDA
Fig. 10–6. Thomas U. Walter, Section through Dome of U.S. Capitol, 1859. The cross section shows Brumidi’s final design for a fresco in the canopy. Architect of the Capitol.
The Relationship of the Canopy Fresco to the Rotunda
The finished canopy permits the viewer 180 feet below to
look up into a great funnel of light, which radiates
through a vast well. From the vantage point of the bal-
cony surrounding the eye of the dome, with the great
frescoed canopy soaring 21 feet above and the Rotunda
below (fig. 10–7), it is clear that Brumidi not only solved
the technical problem of multiple vantage points, but he
also used the ribbing of the new dome to correlate his six
allegorical groups with the history paintings and sculp-
tured reliefs set in the lower walls, creating a set of formal
and symbolic relationships between his crowning creation
and the earlier works of art.
In Brumidi’s time the eight historical paintings were
arranged differently than they are today.7 The original lo-
cations and relationships are reconstructed in figures
10–8 and 10–9. (The letters and numbers in parentheses
in the following paragraphs refer to these diagrams.) The
four earlier paintings, by John Trumbull, installed on the
western side of the Rotunda, are Declaration of Indepen- dence in Congress (a), Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga (b), Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown (c), and General George Washington Resigning His Com- mission to Congress as Commander in Chief of the Army (d). Installed later on the eastern side were Robert Weir’s
Embarkation of the Pilgrims (e), John Vanderlyn’s Land- ing of Columbus (f), William Powell’s Discovery of the Mis- sissippi by De Soto (g), and John Chapman’s Baptism of Pocahontas (h). These works, set into the walls in huge,
carved frames similar to the overmantels of their day, con-
stituted the first public, monumental mural environment
in the country. If they seem a bit oddly composed today,
it is well to remember that they were conceived to be
seen beneath Charles Bulfinch’s lower hemispherical
dome, which sprang from the entablature directly above
them, not at the bottom of Walter’s 180-foot well.8
Also on the walls of the lower Rotunda, clockwise from
the west door, are eight alternating sculptured reliefs of
146
Fig. 10–7. View from the balcony to the Rotunda floor.
Brumidi would have been aware of the total space encompassed under the new dome.
The Historical Murals
a Trumbull, Declaration of Independence b Trumbull, Surrender of General Burgoyne c Trumbull, Surrender of Lord Cornwallis d Trumbull, George Washington Resigning his Commission e Weir, Embarkation of the Pilgrims f Vanderlyn, Landing of Columbus g Powell, De Soto’s Discovery of the Mississippi h Chapman, Baptism of Pocahontas
The Relief Sculpture
2 Causici, Christopher Columbus
4 Capellano, Robert La Salle
5 Causici, Landing of the Pilgrims
6 Causici, John Cabot
8 Capellano, Sir Walter Raleigh
147
Fig. 10–8. Diagram showing the theoretical relationship of
the works of art in the Rotunda. The diagram is made as if looking down from the center of the canopy. (See key to identify
murals and relief sculptures.)
A George Washington with Liberty and Victory/Fame
B Allegories of the Thirteen Colonies with Scroll
C Commerce—Mercury with Bankers of the Revolution
D Marine—Neptune and Venus with the Atlantic Cable
E Science—Minerva with Franklin, Morse, and Fulton
F War—Freedom defeating Tyranny and Kingly Power
G Agriculture—Ceres with a Reaper
H Mechanics—Vulcan forging Cannon into Railroads
The Frieze (Brumidi’s titles on the sketch, with his spelling)
1 America and History
2 Landing of Columbus
4 Pizzarro going to Peru
5 De Soto’s burial in the Mississipi River
6 Indians Hunting Buffalo
10 Settlement of Pennsylvania
13 Lexington insurrection
15 Surrender of Cornwallis
16 Lewis and Clarke
17 Decatur at Tripoli
18 Col Johnson & Tecumseh
19 The American Army going in the City of Mexico
20 A laborer in the employ of Cap Sutter
Fig. 10–9. Diagram of the dome, frieze, historical murals,
and relief sculpture. This graphic representation shows the works of art in the Rotunda in their theoretical three-dimensional relationship. (See key to identify murals and relief sculptures.)
f g
H D
E F
98 7
6 5
historical events and tondo portraits of early discoverers:
Preservation of Captain Smith by Pocahontas 1, Christo- pher Columbus 2, William Penn’s Treaty with the Indians 3, René Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle 4, Landing of the Pilgrims 5, John Cabot 6, Conflict of Daniel Boone with the Indians 7, and Sir Walter Raleigh 8, carved be-
tween 1825 and 1827 by Enrico Causici, Antonio Capel-
lano, and Nicholas Gevelot.9
have been conscious of the significance of the older mu-
rals and sculptures. It is also apparent that he was aware
of compass orientation, as anyone involved with an archi-
tectural environment would be. In arranging his motifs in
the Agriculture Committee room (H–144), for instance,
he oriented the allegories of the seasons to the cardinal
points. There, Spring is placed to the ever-renewing east,
Summer to the nurturing south, Autumn’s fruition and
death to the opposites inherent in the west’s sunset, and
Winter to the cold and mysterious north. This perennial
directional symbolism of dawn, day, dusk, and dark plays
its role in Brumidi’s Rotunda program as it did in all the
great mural cycles he would have known in Italy, such as
Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, where the Last Judgment, with its opposition of good and evil, is placed on a west
wall. This sense of environmental context was an impor-
tant factor in Brumidi’s arrangement of the six groups of
gods and goddesses in the dome.
The iconography of the canopy fresco, with its con-
junctions of deities and humans, may seem strange to us
today. However, in the mid-nineteenth century the per-
sonification of abstract ideas by means of figures drawn
from classical mythology and the association of historical
figures such as George Washington and Benjamin
Franklin with these was part of the cultural vocabulary.
The gods and goddesses stood allegorically for universal
virtues embodied in popular historical personalities. Thus
Washington sits enthroned in the pose of all-powerful
Jupiter, and the great inventor and political philosopher
Franklin is associated with Minerva, goddess of wisdom.
The complete meaning of Brumidi’s dome can be under-
stood only in respect to these traditional attributes of the
gods and goddesses and how they are related to the his-
torical figures in their immediate context around the edge
of the canopy. These iconographic meanings are also rein-
forced by symbolic placement both above and opposite
the historical paintings and sculptured reliefs.
Washington, flanked by allegories of Liberty and Vic-
tory/Fame (A) (see fig. 9–1), sits enthroned above Free-
dom (F) (see fig. 9–16), who, along with a militant bald
eagle holding arrows, wreaks havoc among the forces of
war, tyranny, and discord. The latter are represented by
figures with a cannon, a king in armor holding a scepter
and an ermine-lined cape, and anarchists with torches. All
these figures are on the west surface of the canopy. They
thus face the east front of the Capitol and are the first im-
ages seen when one looks up from the east door of the
Rotunda. They also face Columbus, the Pilgrims, and de
Soto—those who discovered and settled the land to
which Washington’s leadership gave liberty by means of
victories such as those he and his generals won over Bur-
goyne and Cornwallis, above which—along with the first
victory of Christian love over “heathen savagery”—they
are directly situated.
Next, Ceres, the goddess of agriculture (G) (see fig.
9–17), is seen riding on a reaper filled with grain and at-
tended by Young America wearing a liberty cap. She is
holding a cornucopia, the traditional symbol of plenty,
which is crowned by a pineapple—a rare and exotic fruit at
the time. Ceres’s retinue is completed by Flora, the god-
dess of fertility and flowers, picking blossoms in the fore-
ground, and Pomona, the goddess of fruit, carrying in the
background a basket overflowing with the earth’s abun-
dance. An image of Vulcan, god of the forge (H) (see fig.
9–18), dominates the following scene. His foot is set
firmly on a cannon, and a steam engine is in the back-
ground. His pose and activity signify the peaceful inten-
tions and modernity of American industry.
Both Ceres and Vulcan face south from the north sur-
face, to the region of daily enterprise and growth, where
Pocahontas, Daniel Boone, and the Declaration of Inde-
pendence symbolize the planting of spiritual and political
seeds and the forging of territory-spanning industry. Sim-
ilarly, both preside over the sowing of democracy inher-
ent in Washington’s resigning his commission and in the
Pilgrims who first tamed the wilderness, which was soon
to be conquered nationally.
To the east reigns Mercury, the trickster god of opposites
and of commerce (C) (see fig. 9–19), who faces west, to-
ward the conflicts of warfare and surrender. In his guise as
god of travelers, however, he presides above Columbus, the
Pilgrims, and de Soto — while holding over all the ca-
duceus, symbol of healing and peaceful interactions. In this
respect, he is surrounded by the heaving and hauling of
boxes and bales. Shipping is represented to the right by two
sailors with an anchor. One of the sailors gestures to an
ironclad boat in the background, which may refer to one of
the great naval achievements of the Civil War, the building
of the ironclad ships such as the Monitor. The god himself
deals with one of the bankers of the Revolution, Robert
Morris, to whom he offers a bag of money. Similar bags are
stashed at the foot of his dais. It is interesting and amusing
to note that Brumidi chose to identify himself with the god
of commerce by signing his masterpiece (the inscription
reads “C. Brumidi/1865”) on the box next to these.
Neptune and Venus are shown together (D) (see fig.
9–20) in one of the most beautifully designed groupings
148
the Capitol. Brumidi himself would be sporadically em-
ployed there for the next decade. But at the end of that
time the great frieze remained blank.
In 1876 Brumidi petitioned Congress to be allowed to
finish the overall Rotunda program, and he was eventu-
ally permitted to begin the cartoons for his frieze in
1877. He began painting the fresco in 1878 but died in
1880 before he finished it. Filippo Costaggini was se-
lected to complete the frieze following Brumidi’s designs.
But miscalculations in the projected dimensions left, from
about 1895 until 1953, a 31-foot length of wall un-
painted.10 This was eventually filled by the academic mu-
ralist Allyn Cox. His somewhat anachronistic contribu-
tion honorably fills the gap, and the stylistic tensions
between the three artists are noticeable only to art histo-
rians with binoculars (see foldout following chapter 11).
Today it is difficult to understand clearly how Brumidi
might have intended to integrate the frieze into his overall
symbolic program. There are two reasons for this. First
and most obvious is that Brumidi’s surviving sketch for
the frieze (fig. 10–10) may not be complete and was made
in 1859, twenty years before he began to paint. Second, it
is plain that the selection of historical events to be shown
in the frieze was not the work of the artist alone.
Concerning this last point, surviving documents indi-
cate that both Meigs and the great history painter
Emanuel Leutze contributed to the selection of subjects.
In his 1855 report Meigs described his conception of the
frieze as follows:
depths of barbarism to the heights of civilization; the
rude and barbarous civilization of some of the Ante-
Columbian tribes; the contests of the Aztecs with
their less civilized predecessors; their own conquest
by the Spanish race; the wilder state of the hunter
tribes of our own regions; the discovery, settlement,
wars, treaties; the gradual advance of the white, and
retreat of the red races, our own revolutionary and
other struggles, with the illustration of the higher
achievements of our present civilization. . . . 11
In a letter to Meigs dated February 8, 1857, Leutze
elaborated his scheme for a mural series throughout the
Capitol, including a chronological sequence of events.12
While Meigs rejected this grandiose conception as im-
practical, he must have been intrigued by the thematic in-
formation Leutze had provided, and it is…